Filtered email differentiation

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for removing an undesired email message. Some embodiments comprise providing detection mechanisms for detecting undesired email messages from an email service of a user. Accordingly, a user interface may be provided to display an identification of an undesired email message in a particular visual manner that is associated with a particular detection mechanism. Other systems and methods are also provided.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to copending U.S. utility patent applicationentitled “Consolidated Email Filtering User Interface” filed on the sameday as the present application and accorded Ser. No. 10/686,293, whichis entirely incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to digital communication and,more particularly, to email.

BACKGROUND

With the advent of the Internet, email has become prevalent in digitalcommunications. For example, email messages are exchanged on a dailybasis to conduct business, to maintain personal contacts, to send andreceive files, etc. Unfortunately, undesired email messages have alsobecome prevalent with increased email traffic. Often, these emailmessages are unsolicited advertisements, which are often referred to as“junk mail” or “spam.” Currently, software applications exist, whichremove some of the spam or junk mail from a recipient's email account(or mailbox), thereby reducing clutter in the recipient's email account.Email messages that are determined to be spam or junk mail are eitherremoved (e.g., permanently deleted) or stored in a designated folder(e.g., “trash” folder, “junk mail” folder, “spam” folder, etc.). Suchapplications, however, still may not be adequate to effectively removeundesired email messages.

Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to addressthe aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides for removing undesired email messages.In this regard, some embodiments, among others, comprise providing aplurality of detection mechanisms for detecting undesired emailmessages. Accordingly, a user interface is provided to display anidentification of an undesired email message in a particular visualmanner that is associated with a particular detection mechanism.

Systems, methods, features, and advantages will be or become apparent toone with skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings anddetailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the disclosure can be better understood with referenceto the following drawings. The components in the drawings are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the detection managementsystem.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an email application forthe detection management system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing one embodiment of a message center for theuser interface logic of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing one embodiment for managing one or more spamdetection schemes with the user interface logic of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing one embodiment for editing an allow listwith the user interface logic of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing one embodiment editing a block lost with theuser interface logic of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing one embodiment for adding an objectionableword or phrase to an objectionable word and phrase list with the userinterface logic of FIG. 2.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the message center for theuser interface logic of FIG. 2.

FIG. 9A is a diagram showing one embodiment of a read window for theuser interface logic of FIG. 2.

FIG. 9B is a diagram showing one embodiment of a read window for theuser interface logic of FIG. 2.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing one embodiment of a user interface foradding the sender of the particular message to a block list of FIG. 6.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of a method for managingspam detection schemes of an email application of FIG. 1.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of a method for visuallyrepresenting a spam message according to a particular spam detectionscheme of FIG. 4.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of a method for detectingan undesired email message using a plurality of spam detection schemes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference is now made in detail to the description of the embodiments asillustrated in the drawings. While several embodiments are described inconnection with these drawings, there is no intent to limit to theembodiment or embodiments disclosed herein. On the contrary, the intentis to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents.

The present disclosure provides communication systems and methods formanaging the detection of undesired email messages. FIG. 1 is a blockdiagram of one embodiment of the detection management system 100. Asshown in FIG. 1, the detection management system 100 comprisesrepresentative workstations 102, 104, 106 that are coupled to a server110 over a network such as the Internet 120. The server 110 is coupledto a database 115 that stores email accounts (or mailboxes) of varioususers.

In the operating environment shown in FIG. 1, a sender of an emailmessage generates the email message at a sender workstation 102 andsends the email message through a network 120 (via the server 110 anddatabase 115) to a recipient at a recipient workstation 106. As shown inFIG. 1, the recipient workstation 106 includes a processor 152, anetwork interface 160, memory 154, a local storage device 158, and a bus156 that permits communication between the various components. While notexplicitly shown, it should be appreciated that the other workstations102, 104 may also include similar components that facilitate computationor execution of applications on the workstations 102, 104. In someembodiments, the local storage device 158 may be a hard drive configuredto electronically store data. The local storage device 158 may alsostore computer programs that execute on the recipient workstation 106.In this sense, the processor 152 is preferably configured to access anyprogram that is stored on the local storage device 158, and execute theprogram with the assistance of the memory 154. In the embodiment of FIG.1, an email application 155 is shown as being loaded into memory 154 forlaunching at the workstation 106, thereby permitting the workstations106 to send and receive email messages through the network 120. Sincethe functioning of computing devices is well known in the art, furtherdiscussion of the processor 152, memory 154, and the local storagedevice 158 are omitted here. However, it should be appreciated that thememory 154 may preferably be either volatile or non-volatile memory.

The network interface 160 is configured to provide an interface betweenthe recipient workstation 106 and the network 120. Thus, the networkinterface 160 provides the interface for the workstation 106 to receiveany data that may be entering from the network 120 and, also, totransmit any data from the workstation 106 to the network 120.Specifically, in some embodiments, the network interface 160 isconfigured to permit communication between each of the workstations 102,104, 106 and the server 110 and, additionally, to permit communicationbetween the workstations 102, 104, 106 themselves. In this regard, thenetwork interface 160 may be a modem, a network card, or any otherinterface that communicatively couples each of the workstations 102,104, 106 to the network. Since various network interfaces are known inthe art, further discussion of these components is omitted here. Itshould be understood that various aspects of the email application 155may be conventional or may be custom tailored to specific needs.

Referring now to FIG. 2, shown is a more detailed diagram of the emailapplication 155 of FIG. 1. The email application preferably includesPOP3 and SMTP components 210. As one skilled in the art will recognize,these protocols merely relate as examples to retrieving and sendingemail messages. As such, it is intended that other protocols andarchitectures that operate to send and retrieve email messages, such asIMAP4, among others, are intended to be included herein. For example,other alternative embodiments of the email application 155 includecomponents for downloading of email messages that have been stored in aserver 110 for a workstation 106 that has LAN or Web access.

The POP3 component 210 in this embodiment typically downloads emailmessages from the server 110 through the network interface 160, andstores the email messages in non-volatile storage which may be referredto as a mail store 220. A rules engine 230 sorts and filters the emailmessages according to specified rules before the email messages aredeposited in the mail store 220. For example, one rule may stipulatethat each email message should be examined to determine if the messageis “spam,” and another rule may specify that any message from a certainsender should be automatically deleted, etc. Note, the POP3 server inthis embodiment can be set up to retrieve messages for more than oneemail account. Further, the term “spam” is being used to generally referto any undesired email message that may be sent to a user, includingunsolicited email messages, offensive email messages, etc., amongothers. Accordingly, spam messages may be sent from commercial andnon-commercial senders.

User interface logic 240 included within the email application 155 canretrieve the messages from the mail store 220, format the information,and send the formatted information to the I/O display device 150. Inparticular, user interface logic 240 of this embodiment, among others,of the present invention is configured to parse the data retrieved frommail store 220. Specifically, user interface logic 240 can separateemail messages according to an associated “To:” email address or “From:”email address, and display multiple mailboxes corresponding to severalemail addresses. User interface logic 240 is also preferably configuredto display identification and summary information from each of themailboxes, such as sender name and subject identification, as well as asummary of how many messages are contained in each of the subfolders ofthe mailboxes, among others. One skilled in the art will recognize thatin practice, user interface logic 240 typically calls various functionswithin the operating system that are relayed through the processor 152before being sent to the display device 150.

FIG. 3 is a screen diagram display representing one embodiment of amessage center 300 for the user interface logic 240 of FIG. 2. As shownin FIG. 3, the message center 300 for the user interface logic 240comprises a send or receive selection button 310, a write selectionbutton 315, a mail options selection button 320, an address bookdatabase selection button 325, a spam controls selection button 330, anda folder options selection button 335. For example, if a user selectsthe address book database selection button 325, then an address bookuser interface (not shown) is launched or instantiated as is commonlyunderstood in the art. If the user selects the write selection button315, then a compose window (not shown) is launched or instantiated as iscommonly understood in the art. Similarly, if the user selects the sendor receive selection button 310, then any prepared messages are sent andthe designated mail servers for the user are checked for new mail, as iscommonly understood in the art.

In addition to the selection buttons 310, 315, 320, 325, 330, 335 themessage center 300 includes a display screen 345, which displaysidentifications 346 of received email messages in an identificationpanel 347 and preferably displays a preview pane 350 having a preview ofa selected email message for an active persona (e.g, Joe, Sr., asopposed to Joe Jr., as shown). The display screen 345 also includesmessage response options 348 such as replying to the email message,forwarding the email message, reading the full email message (ratherthan merely previewing the email message in the preview pane), deletingthe email message, or printing the email message. For example, if theuser selects the read selection button 349, then a read window (notshown) is launched or instantiated as is commonly understood in the art.As known to those skilled in the art, there are many different ways tofacilitate reading and writing a message, and the invention presentedherein should not be limited to a particular method for displaying thetext of a message or for composing a message.

The message center 300 also includes a folder list 305 having aplurality of folders which have various email messages that may beorganized according to message type, such as an inbox folders 305 a,spam folder 305 b, drafts folder 305 c, outbox folder. 305 d, saveditems folder 305 e, trash folder 305 f, etc. The message center 300currently shows, for example, a folder list for Joe Sr. 305 and a folderlist for his adolescent son, Joe Jr. 306. Note, the folder list of Joe.Jr. preferably does not have a spam folder. Accordingly, in someembodiments, spam messages that are intended for Joe. Jr. areautomatically placed in the spam folder 305 b of another user, such as aparent Joe. Sr. This operation is discussed later in reference to tagidentifiers for spam messages.

Referring again to FIG. 3, upon selecting the folder options selectionbutton 335, the user may configure and store unique folder optionsspecifically for that user. In a similar manner, selection of the mailoptions selection button 320 may also provide customized mail settings(e.g., mail delivery rates) that may be customized according todifferent groupings of communications accounts and/or services.Similarly, if the user selects the spam controls selection button 330,then a user spam controls window (not shown) for configuring spamsettings is launched or instantiated. The spam controls windowpreferably enables a user to effectively manage various spam detectionschemes in a consolidated manner, as discussed below.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing one embodiment of a user interface 400 formanaging a plurality of spam detection schemes. As shown in FIG. 4, theuser interface 400 comprises a radio-style selection button 410 toindicate if a user has activated spam filtering for email messages thatare to be delivered to the user's inbox. Preferably, if enabled, spamdetection mechanisms attempt to detect and filter out undesired emailmessages from incoming email messages before the email messages reach auser's inbox. The undesired email messages are typically stored in auser's spam folder 305 b. In some embodiments, the rules engine 230 ofFIG. 2 employs a variety of spam detection mechanisms. To wit, the rulesengine 230 preferably executes rules that are intended to detectundesired email messages or spam. For example, the rules engine 230 mayperform rules that attempt to recognize certain features that areprevalent in spam messages. Further, the rules engine 230 may performrules that implement a statistical algorithm, such as a Bayesian-type,to determine if an incoming message may be spam, based upon the overallsimilarity between the incoming message and previous spam messages.

Accordingly in FIG. 4, the user interface 400 provides a sliding scalerepresentation 420 whereby a user can specify the level of overalllikelihood of spam (sensitivity of filtering) that is utilized in astatistical filtering algorithm. If the scale is positioned to the farleft, than an incoming message that has a low level of similarity withprevious spam messages will be determined to be spam. Accordingly, asthe scale is moved to the right, the level of similarity is graduallyincreased, and thus, an incoming email message has to have a higherlevel of similarity with previous spam messages to be determined to be,and filtered out as, spam.

The user interface 405 further comprises radio-style selection buttons430 that may be selected to activate/deactivate a mechanism for removingincoming messages that are from unauthorized senders. For example, auser may select the top selection button to indicate that an incomingemail message that is not from an authorized list of senders should bedesignated as spam and stored in the spam folder for the user (“JoeSr.”) 305 b. Accordingly, the user may select the edit allow listselection button 440 to add and remove senders from the “allow list,” asshown below.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing one embodiment 500 of a user interface foradding senders to, and removing senders from, the “allow list.” To add asender, the user may enter a complete email address or a domain nameinto the input box 515 and select the add selection button 520.Accordingly, the entered name will be added to the list of emailaddresses and domain names that make up the “allow list” 530. Further, auser may remove an email address or domain name that is on the allowlist 530 by selecting the address/name (e.g., by highlighting theaddress/name) and selecting the remove button 540.

Referring back to FIG. 4, instead of authorizing senders from an allowlist, a user may select the bottom radio-style selection button 430 toindicate that an incoming email message that is from a list ofunauthorized senders should be designated as spam and stored in the spamfolder for the user 305 b. Accordingly, the user may select the editblock list selection 445 button to add and remove senders from the“block list,” as shown below.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing one embodiment 610 of a user interface foradding senders to, and removing senders from, the “block list.” To add asender, the user may enter a complete email address or a domain nameinto the input box 615 and select the add selection button 620.Accordingly, the entered name will be added to the list of emailaddresses and domain names that make up the “block list” 630. Further, auser may remove an email address or domain name that is on the blocklist 630 by selecting the address/name (e.g. by highlighting theaddress/name) and selecting the remove button 640.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the user interface 400 further comprisesradio-style selection buttons 450 to activate/deactivate a textfiltering mechanism. For example, a user may select the top selectionbutton 450 to indicate that the textual content of an incoming emailmessage should be checked against a list of offensive words and phrases.If an incoming email message is determined to contain a word or phrasethat has been deemed offensive, than the email message is stored in aspam folder 305 b. Typically, the list of objectionable words andphrases has been pre-compiled and does not have to be created by theuser. However, a user may modify the list by adding or removing words orphrases from the list. For example, to add an offensive word or phraseto the objectionable word/phrase list, a user may select the edit textfilter button 460, as shown below.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing one embodiment 700 of a user interface foradding an objectionable word or phrase to the objectionable word andphrase list. To add a word or phrase, the user may enter the word orphrase into the input box 715 and select the add selection button 720.Accordingly, the entered word or phrase will be added to the list ofobjectionable words and phrases. An alternative mechanism for adding orremoving a word or phrase to the objectionable word and phrase list maybe associated with the spam folder 305 b and is discussed later inreference to FIG. 9A.

Referring again to FIG. 4, after a user has provided selections for eachof the spam filtering techniques, the user may confirm his or herselections by selecting the OK button 470. Otherwise, the user maynullify his or her selections by selecting the cancel button 475. Inother embodiments, different spam detection schemes may also be employedon a single graphical control or window interface. For example, anothertype of spam detection mechanism, not previously mentioned, allowsmessages from designated senders who have been specified on a particularlist of senders by the user and then allows messages from senders whoare not on the particular list to be processed by other spam detectionschemes. In this way, the user is able to still receive messages fromsenders that are not on the particular list, as long as the messages arenot designated as spam by another spam detection mechanism. In someembodiments, among others, the particular list of senders provided bythe user is the user's address book of email addresses. Further, someembodiments verify that a sender (who is in the user's address book) ofa received email message is legitimate by performing a Domain NameServer (DNS) look-up of the domain name of the Simple Mail TransferProtocol (SMTP) server (using the originating IP address in the receivedemail message header) that was used to originally send the emailmessage. Then, the domain name of the SMTP server is compared to thelisted domain name of the sender in the From: field of the email messageto insure that the domain name of the actual sender of the email messageis the same as the listed domain name in the From: field.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, among others, a user may specifyvarious combinations of spam detection schemes to provide varyingsecurity levels of spam protection. For example, in the embodiment shownin FIG. 4, spam detection schemes involving a statistical filteringalgorithm 420 and a block list 430 have been activated, while a spamdetection scheme involving an allow list 430 and text filtering 450 hasnot been activated. Next, some techniques for modifying particular spamdetection scheme settings are discussed below.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the message center 312 forthe user interface logic 240 when the spam folder 305 b has beenselected for viewing. In this regard, once the spam folder 305 b hasbeen selected, identifications 825 of the email messages contained inthe spam folder 305 b are presented to the user. As shown in FIG. 8, thespam folder 305 a, which belongs to Joe Sr., contains email messagesfrom C. Caustic, spam.com, J. Smith, and junk.com. For spam folder 305b, the feature of displaying a preview of a selected message has beendisabled in some embodiments, since the contents in a spam folder hasbeen determined to be objectionable or undesired. Hence, in the exampleof FIG. 8, if J. Smith's email message is selected, then the contents ofthat email message may not be displayed in the preview window 350 belowthe list of email messages. Further, when the spam folder has beenselected for viewing, the mark as spam button 390 of FIG. 3 is disabledand/or hidden, since the messages in the spam folder 305 b have alreadybeen marked as spam. However, a message in a spam folder 305 b may beviewed by using the message center 300 to select a message from the spamfolder 305 a and then selecting the read button 349. A read window willthen open, enabling the user to read the text associated with theselected message, as discussed below.

FIG. 9A is a diagram showing one embodiment of a read window 900 foruser interface logic 240 when a message from a spam folder 305 b hasbeen selected. As shown in FIG. 9A, one embodiment of the read window900 comprises several selection options that a user may select. Forexample, a user may select an email reply button 902, an email forwardbutton 904, a print button 906, and a delete button 908 from the emailread window 900. Since these functions are well known in the art,further discussion of email reply, email forward, print, and deletefunctions are omitted here. However, it is worthwhile to note that,unlike prior systems, the selection of the unmark as spam button 910, insome embodiments, permits the user to move a message that has beenmarked as a spam message and stored in the spam folder 305 b to theinbox folder 305 a of the user (Joe, Sr.).

Correspondingly, as shown in FIG. 3, the selection of a non-designatedspam folder (e.g, inbox folder) allows the user to select the mark asspam button 390 to move a message in the non-designated folder to thespam folder and to have the message marked and designated as spam. Oncea message has been manually marked as spam by the user, the user mayalso be presented with a user interface 1000 for adding the sender ofthe particular message to the block list, as shown in FIG. 10. Byselecting the yes button 1010, the full email address of the sender isadded to the block list 630.

Of further note, within the text of a message that has been marked asspam, the words or phrases that were detected by the text filteringmechanism may be highlighted 920, as shown. Moreover, in someembodiments of the user interface 900, a user may use a mouse orkeyboard to perform a “right click” operation to select a remove fromlist option 930 to indicate that the user would like the highlightedword/phrase to be removed from the list of objectionable words andphrases, as shown in FIG. 9A. Correspondingly, a user may select a wordthat has not been highlighted within the text of the message and maymanually highlight the word or phrase. Then, the user may perform a“right click” operation on the word or phrase and select an “add tolist” option (not shown) to indicate that the word or phrase should beadded to the list of objectionable words and phrases. Accordingly, thisoperation may be performed with regard to messages in other foldersbesides the spam folder 305 b.

As discussed above, certain incoming email messages may be stored in thespam folder 305 b. Thus, when the user (Joe Sr., in the example of FIG.3) selects the spam folder 305 b, then a list 825 of spam email messageidentifications is displayed to the user. Note, each email message thatis stored in the spam folder 305 b is preferably embedded with anindicator (e.g, a particular tag, marker, etc.) that shows that themessage has been designated as a spam message. Further, each emailmessage in the spam folder 305 b is preferably identified with aseparate indicator for each of a variety of spam detection schemes. Forexample, if the email messages from both J. Smith and C. Caustic weredetermined to be spam or undesired email messages because each emailmessage contains words or phrases in the list of objectionable words andphrases, then the email messages from J. Smith and C. Caustic maycontain a first indicator associated with a text-filtering detectionscheme. Alternatively, if the email message from spam.com was determinedto be spam because the spam.com domain name is on the block list of theuser, then the email message from spam.com may have a second indicatorassociated with a block list detection scheme. Accordingly, additionalindicators may be associated with other spam detection schemes. Forexample, various other spam detection schemes include spam filters basedon various methodologies or algorithms, manual detection by a user, etc.

Further, each identification of an email message that is marked by aparticular indicator may be displayed in a particular manner within thespam folder 305 a by the message center 300 (e.g., displayed with aparticular font, style, color, etc.). For example, an identification ofspam message that contains a first indicator may be displayed withitalic lettering, as shown in FIG. 8. Alternatively in some embodiments,for example, identification of a spam message that contains a firstindicator may be displayed in a particular color, while identificationof a spam message embedded with a different indicator maybe displayed ina different color. For example, a spam email identification displayed ina blue color may be associated with a block list detection scheme.Hence, by viewing the appearance of an identification of a spam message,a user may determine the type of spam detection scheme that designatedthe message as spam and caused the message to be placed in the spamfolder 305 b. Other embodiments include appearance modifications foremail messages themselves. Therefore, if the user discovers that a“desired” message was placed in the spam folder, the user can readilydetermine which particular detection scheme designated the message asspam. Accordingly, the user may alter the settings or parameters of theparticular detection scheme to prevent a similar situation fromreoccurring. For example, if a particular message was designated to bespam, the user may ascertain from the look or appearance of theidentification of the message (e.g., displayed in an orange color) thatthe message was deemed to be spam because of the message contained acertain word that was in the objectionable word list of a text-filteringdetection scheme. Therefore, the user may remove the word from the list,as discussed in reference to FIG. 9A.

A user in some embodiments may drag identifications of email messagesbetween the user's inbox folder 305 a and spam folder 305 b in eitherdirection (e.g., via a drag and drop operation). Accordingly, the dragand drop operation of moving a message identification from a spam folder305 b to the inbox folder 305 a automatically removes the indicator of aparticular detection scheme that previously marked the message as a spammessage. Further, the user may be prompted to update or adjust thesettings or preferences of the particular detection mechanism after thedrag and drop operation.

For example, the rules engine 230 may place a particular email messagein a user's spam folder 305 b because the sender of the particular emailmessage was on the user's block list 630. However, the user may laterdrag the email message identification from the spam folder 305 b to theinbox folder 305 a. Accordingly, user interface logic 240, upondetecting the drag and drop operation, may activate a mechanism forprompting the user to adjust settings for the particular detectionscheme that was associated with the particular email message. Forexample, if the particular email message was previously marked with anindicator of the block list detection scheme, the user may be promptedto remove the sender from the user's block list 630. Alternatively, ifthe particular email message was previously marked with an indicator forthe text-filtering detection scheme, the user may be prompted to removethe word or phrase that caused the email message to be marked as spamfrom the list of objectionable words and phrases, for example.Correspondingly, after the email message has been removed from the spamfolder 305 b, the current content of all the email messages in the spamfolder 305 b may then be re-examined according to a statisticalalogrithm, such as a Baysesian-type, since the content of the spamfolder 305 b has changed.

In the inverse operation of dragging an email message identificationfrom the inbox 305 a to the spam folder 305 b, the contents of the spamfolder 305 b, after the email message has been removed from the inboxand added to the spam folder 305 a, are also examined under astatistical algorithm, such as a Bayesian-type. Accordingly, userinterface logic 240 upon detecting the drag and drop operation mayactivate a mechanism for prompting the user to mark the email message asa certain type of spam using an indicator associated with one of theparticular detection scheme mechanisms.

For example, if a user moves a particular email message from the inbox305 a to the spam folder 305 b because of a particular objectionableword in the particular email message, the user may be prompted tospecify that the particular email message has been determined to be spambecause of an objectionable word or phrase. Accordingly, the emailmessage may be marked with an indicator for the text-filtering detectionscheme (that detects objectionable words and phrases).

Further, upon selection of a particular type of spam, the user may beprompted to adjust the settings associated with the particular spamdetection scheme that detects that particular type of spam. Accordingly,in the present case, the user may prompted to add the particularobjectionable word to the list of objectionable words and phrasesutilized by the text-filtering detection scheme. Alternatively, forother types of spam, the user may prompted to adjust other settings,such as adding a sender of an email message to the user's block list630.

Typically, the format of an email message contains markers or tags(e.g., to: tag, cc: tag, etc.) to instruct an email application 155 onhow the message should appear on a display device 150 when shown.Accordingly, in some embodiments of the invention, special tag or markerindicators are placed within the format of the respective email messagesto identify an email message as a spam message. Further, special tagindicators are also placed within the format of respective emailmessages to indicate that the message was detected by a particular spamdetection scheme. Referring back to FIG. 2, the rules engine 230 mayperform a rule designed to detect an incoming spam message. Further, therules engine 230 may perform more than one rule that is directed towarddetecting spam messages. For example, one rule may implement a Bayesianfiltering approach and another rule may implement a text-filteringapproach, for example.

Accordingly, if a particular spam message is detected by the rulesengine 230, then the rules engine 230 may be configured to insert aspecial marker or tag identifier into the format of the particular spammessage to indicate it as such (i e., a particular spam message). Inaddition, user interface logic 240 may be directed to insert a specialmarker or identifier tag into the format of an email message that theuser wants to manually designate as a spam message, as discussedpreviously. Therefore, the user interface logic 240 can later recognizethat the message is spam by recognizing the special identifier tag inits formatting. Extensible markup language (XML) is one language, amongothers, that may be used to describe the contents of an email message byusing markers or tags, according to the previously describedembodiments.

Note, the user interface logic 240 may also perform particularoperations that are associated with a particular marker or tagidentifier contained in an email message. For example, in someembodiments, a read window may show an email message that has a tagidentifier associated with a text-filtering detection scheme andhighlight the words within the message that are contained on a list ofobjectionable words and phrases. However, this operation may not beperformed for spam messages detected by other detection schemes andassociated with other tag identifiers.

In addition, a spam message that is intended for a user who has beenclassified as a “child” may be stored in spam folder of a parent or someother designated user. For example, a message intended for a child maybe marked with a tag or marker that indicates that the intendedrecipient is a “child.” Accordingly, the same message may be marked byan identifier that designates the message as spam. Therefore, aparticular operation may be performed for messages that contain both thechild tag and the spam identifier. To wit, user interface logic 240 maybe configured to detect the “child” marker and the “spam” marker inmessage and upon detection, perform the operation of moving the messageto the spam folder of another user, such as a parent of a the user.Correspondingly, a user interface of the other user (“adult”) mayrepresent the spam messages of the child in a different manner than spammessages of the adult, since both types of messages may be stored in asingle spam folder of the adult.

As shown in FIG. 9B, alternative embodiments of the user interface 900may provide a button 940 to activate a mechanism 950 for displaying alist of the particular objectionable words and phrases that arecontained within a particular email message and how many instances eachobjectionable word or phrase occurred. By clicking on the particularword or phrase in the list, a user may advance to the particularinstance in the message to review the word and surrounding text.Further, the user may directly remove, replace, or skip (allow once) theinstance of the usage of the particular word or phrase in the messagevia the mechanism 950. In this manner, the user may clean up andsanitize the email message. For example, to replace a word or phrase, amechanism 960 for substituting a word may be activated from themechanism 950 for displaying a list. Accordingly, the mechanism 960 forsubstituting a word presents alternative words that can be substitutedfor the objectionable word or phrase.

Consider, an email message that is intended for a child and has beendetermined to be spam by the rules engine 230. If the email message wasdetected by a text-filtering mechanism, the email message may be cleanedby an adult user, for example. In some embodiments, after the emailmessage has been reviewed and sanitized according to the adult user'slevel of satisfaction, the adult user may drag and drop the emailmessage to the child's inbox folder. In other embodiments where theemail message is located in the adult user's spam folder 305 b, afterthe email message has been reviewed and sanitized according to the adultuser's level of satisfaction, the adult user may unmark the emailmessage as spam which causes the message to automatically move to thechild's inbox.

Having described several embodiments of systems for effectively managingvarious spam detection schemes in a consolidated manner, attention isturned to FIGS. 11-12 which show several embodiments of methods formanaging spam detection schemes. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing anembodiment of a method for managing spam detection schemes of an emailapplication. In this embodiment, the process (1100) comprises the stepsof providing (1110) multiple spam detection schemes by an emailapplication. Next, access to each spam detection scheme is provided(1120) from a single control window or graphical interface control.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of a method for visuallyrepresenting a spam message according to a particular spam detectionscheme. In this embodiment, the process (1200) comprises the step ofproviding (1210) multiple spam detection schemes or approaches. Further,the process comprises designating (1220) an email message as spamaccording to a particular detection scheme. The next step includesmarking (1230) the email message with a particular identifier of theparticular detection scheme. Then, the identification of the emailmessage with the particular identifier is displayed (1240) in aparticular manner that is associated with the particular identifier. Forexample, an email message (or identification) that is associated with aparticular identifier may be displayed in a certain font, style, color,etc. that is associated with the particular identifier. Accordingly,another identifier associated with another detection scheme may cause anemail message (or identification) to be displayed in a different font,style, color, etc. Hence, the process (1200) may also include the stepof recognizing (1250) which particular detection scheme designated theemail message as spam based upon the visual representation or depictionof the email message.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing one embodiment, among others, of a methodfor detecting an undesired email message. In this embodiment, theprocess (1300) comprises several detection schemes that have beenactivated by the user or an administrator of the user's email settingsand services. In other embodiments, however, a user or administrator maynot have each of the detection schemes activated as shown or may havedifferent types of spam detection schemes that are available to beactivated.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 13, the process (1300) comprises thestep of determining (1310) the sender of an email message, as has beenpreviously described. Preferably, identification of the sender isobtained from the header of the email message. If the identification ofthe sender provided from the email message matches (1320) a person'sidentification in the address book of a user, then an attempt isperformed to verify (1330) the identification of the sender in the emailmessage as the actual sender of the email message, as previouslydescribed. After the sender of the email message has been verified to bea person who is listed in the user's address book, the email message hasbeen determined to not be spam (e.g., an undesired email message) and ismoved (1340) to the inbox of the user (or, in other embodiments, left toremain in the inbox). Alternatively, if the identification of the sender(from the email message) is not (1320) in the address book of the useror is not verified (1330) to be the actual sender, then the emailmessage is further examined to determine if the email message is spam.

Accordingly, the email message is checked (1350) to determine if thecontent of the email message contains any words that have beendetermined to be objectionable by the user or an administrator(hereinafter, referred to as a text filter). If the email message isdetected to contain undesirable words by the text filter (1350), theemail message is determined to be spam and is sent (1360) to a spamfolder of the user or another designated user (such as a parent of auser). Alternatively, if the email message passes the text filter or isnot detected to contain any undesired words by text filter, the process(1300) continues to allow the email message to be further examined byother spam detection schemes.

Correspondingly, the sender (as identified by the header of the emailmessage) is checked (1370) against an allow list, as previouslydescribed, if the allow list detection mechanism has been activated(1365). Accordingly, if the sender is included on the allow list (1370),then the email message is determined to not be spam and is moved (1340)to the inbox of the user (or, in other embodiments, left to remain inthe inbox). Alternatively, if the sender is not included on the allowlist (1370), the email message is determined to be spam and the emailmessage is sent or moved (1360) to the spam folder of the user oranother designated user. Note, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 13, whenthe spam detection scheme of checking against an allow list isactivated, then the spam detection scheme of checking against a blocklist is not performed. Accordingly, if the spam detection scheme ofchecking against an allow list is not activated (1365), then the step ofchecking against a block list is performed (1380). In other embodimentsof the invention, checking against both an allow list and a block listmay be enabled, checking against both an allow list and a block list maybe enabled, in which case the allow list would not exclude emailmessages.

Next, the process (1300) continues by checking the sender of emailmessage against a block list, in step 1380, as previously described. Ifthe sender is included in the block list, the email message isdetermined to be spam and is moved (1360) to the spam folder of the useror another designated user. Alternatively, if the sender is not included(1380) in the block list, the email message is checked (1390) against astatistical filtering algorithm that is used to detect undesired emailmessages, as previously described. Correspondingly, if the statisticalfiltering algorithm determines (1390) the email message to be spam, thenthe email message is moved (1360) to the spam folder of the user oranother designated user. Alternatively, if the statistical filteringalgorithm determines (1390) the email message to not be spam and passesthe email message, the email message is moved (1340) to the inbox of theuser (or, in other embodiments, left to remain in the inbox).

Any process descriptions or blocks in flow charts should be understoodas representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include oneor more executable instructions for implementing specific logicalfunctions or steps in the process, and alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention in which functions may be executed out of order from thatshown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverseorder, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understoodby those reasonably skilled in the art.

The email application 155 and mail store 220 may be implemented as acomputer program, which comprises an ordered listing of executableinstructions for implementing logical functions. As such the emailapplication 155 can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for useby or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, orother system that can fetch the instructions from the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. Inthe context of this document, a “computer-readable medium” can be anymeans that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport theprogram for use by or in connection with the instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device. The computer-readable medium can be, forexample but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device,or propagation medium. More specific examples (a nonexhaustive list) ofthe computer-readable medium would include the following: an electricalconnection (electronic) having one or more wires, a portable computerdiskette (magnetic), a random access memory (RAM) (electronic), aread-only memory (ROM) (electronic), an erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EPROM or Flash memory) (electronic), an optical fiber (optical),and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) (optical). Notethat the computer-readable medium could even be paper or anothersuitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can beelectronically captured via, for instance, optical scanning of the paperor other medium, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in asuitable manner if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

Although exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, it will beclear to those of ordinary skill in the art that a number of changes,modifications, or alterations to the invention as described may be made.All such changes, modifications, and alterations should therefore beseen as within the scope of the disclosure. It should be emphasized thatthe above-described embodiments of the present invention, particularly,any “preferred” embodiments, are merely possible examples ofimplementations, merely set forth for a clear understanding of theprinciples of the disclosure. Many variations and modifications may bemade to the above-described embodiments of the disclosure withoutdeparting substantially from the spirit and principles herein. All suchmodifications and variations are intended to be included herein withinthe scope of this disclosure.

1. An email system for providing email service to a user, comprising: acomputer device of the user configured with a plurality of detectionmechanisms that detect undesired email messages that have been receivedby the user from an email server, the computer device configured to taga received email message with a marker indicating that that the emailmessage is addressed to a child user, the computer device furtherconfigured to tag a received email message with a marker indicating thatan email message was detected by a particular detection mechanism asbeing undesired; a user interface installed on the computer device andconfigured to visually represent a plurality of mail folders associatedwith a plurality of users that access email messages using the userinterface, the plurality of users comprising at least the child user andthe user designated to regulate the child user's access to his or herundesired email messages, the plurality of mail folders comprising atleast an inbox folder for the child user and an inbox folder and anundesired mail folder for the user, wherein undesired email messages forthe child user are represented as being located in the user's undesiredmail folder; and a display device coupled to the computer device, theuser interface configured to visually represent that a particularundesired email message was detected using a particular detectionmechanism, wherein each of the detection mechanisms is represented usinga different visual representation on the display device and the userinterface upon detecting a drag and drop operation to move an emailmessage from an inbox folder of the user to a designated folder wherethe undesired email messages are stored prompts for the moved emailmessage to be marked as a type of undesired email message that isassociated with one of the detection mechanisms, the user interfacefurther configured to visually represent in the undesired mail folder ofthe user an undesired email message intended for the child user havingboth a child marker and a distinct marker of a particular detectionmechanism in a different manner than undesired email messages intendedfor the user having only the distinct marker for the particulardetection mechanism.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofdetection mechanisms includes a mechanism that refuses to detect anemail message if the sender of the email message is on a list of sendersauthorized by the user.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the pluralityof detection mechanisms includes a mechanism that detects an emailmessage if the sender of the email message is on a list of unauthorizedsenders.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of detectionmechanisms includes a mechanism that detects an email message if theemail message contains a textual content string that is on a list ofunauthorized textual content strings.
 5. The system of claim 1, whereinthe plurality of detection mechanisms include a mechanism that isconfigured to: analyze the overall content of previous email messagesthat have been detected; and detect an email message if the content ofthe message is similar to the overall content of the previous messages.6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of detection mechanismsinclude: a first detection mechanism that detects an email message ifthe sender of the email message is not on a list of senders authorizedby the user; a second detection mechanism that detects an email messageif the sender of the email message is on a list of unauthorized senders;a third detection mechanism that detects an email message if the emailmessage contains a textual content string that is on a list ofunauthorized textual content string; and a fourth detection mechanismthat is configured to: analyze the overall content of previous emailmessages that have been detected; compare the content of an emailmessage to the overall content and assign a score reflective of a levelof similarity for the email message; and detect the email message if thescore is higher than a designated score.
 7. The system of claim 1,wherein the particular undesired email message is, within an emailidentification list, visually represented using a particular color thatis associated with the particular detection mechanism, wherein theparticular color is different from another color that is associated withanother detection mechanism.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein theparticular undesired email message is, within an email identificationlist, visually represented using a particular lettering style that isassociated with the particular detection mechanism, wherein theparticular lettering style is different from another lettering stylethat is associated with another detection mechanism.
 9. A system forproviding email service, comprising: means for providing a plurality ofdetection mechanisms that detect undesired email messages at a user'scomputing device that receives the email messages from an email server;means for designating an email message as being undesirable according toa particular detection scheme; means for marking the email message atthe user's computing device with a particular identifier of theparticular detection scheme, the means for marking the email messagefurther configured to mark a received email message intended for a childuser with a marker indicating that that the email message is addressedto the child user; and means for displaying a plurality of mail foldersassociated with a plurality of users that access email messages, theplurality of users comprising at least the child user and the userdesignated to regulate the child user's access to his or her undesiredemail messages, the plurality of mail folders comprising at least aninbox folder for the child user and an inbox folder and an undesiredmail folder for the user, wherein undesired email messages for the childuser are represented as being located in the user's undesired mailfolder; and a display device coupled to the user's computing device, themeans for displaying further configured to display the email message atthe display device of the user's computing device with the particularidentifier in a particular visual manner that is associated with theparticular identifier, wherein each of the detection mechanisms isrepresented using a different visual representation and the user'scomputing device upon detecting a drag and drop operation to move anemail message from the inbox folder of the user to a designated folderof the user where the undesired email messages are stored prompts forthe moved email message to be marked as a type of undesired emailmessage that is associated with one of the detection mechanisms, whereinthe means for displaying is further configured to detect an embeddedchild marker and visually represent undesired email messages of thechild user in the undesired mail folder of the user in a differentmanner than undesired email messages of the user in the undesired mailfolder of the user.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality ofdetection mechanisms includes a means for detecting of an email messagefrom a sender that is not on a list of senders authorized by the user.11. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of detection mechanismsincludes a means for detecting an email message from a sender that is ona list of unauthorized senders.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein theplurality of detection mechanisms includes a means for detecting anemail message that contains a textual content string that is on a listof unauthorized textual content strings.
 13. The system of claim 9,wherein the plurality of detection mechanisms includes a means fordetecting an email message that has content that matches a designatedlevel of overall content of previous messages that were determined to beundesirable.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality ofdetection mechanisms includes: means for detecting an email message froma sender that is not on a list of senders authorized by the user; ameans for detecting an email message from a sender that is on a list ofunauthorized senders; a means for detecting an email message thatcontains a textual content string that is on a list of unauthorizedtextual content strings; and means for detecting an email message thathas content that matches a designated level of overall content ofprevious messages that were determined to be undesirable.
 15. A methodfor providing email service, comprising: displaying a plurality of mailfolders associated with a plurality of users that access email messagesat a user's computing device, the plurality of users comprising at leasta child user and the user designated to regulate the child user's accessto his or her undesired email messages, the plurality of mail folderscomprising at least an inbox folder for the child user and an inboxfolder and undesired mail folder for the user, wherein undesired emailmessages for the child user are represented as being located in theuser's in box folder; providing a plurality of detection approaches fordetecting undesired email messages at the user's computing device thatreceives the email messages from an email server; designating an emailmessage as being undesirable according to a particular detection scheme;marking the undesirable email message at the user's computing devicewith a particular identifier of the particular detection scheme; markinga received email message intended for a child user with a markerindicating that that the email message is addressed to the child user;displaying the undesirable email message at a display device coupled tothe user's computing device with the particular identifier in aparticular visual manner that is associated with the particularidentifier, wherein each of the detection mechanisms is representedusing a different visual representation; displaying the child emailmessage at the user's undesired mail folder on the display devicecoupled to the computing device in a different visual manner thanundesired email messages addressed to the user; detecting a drag anddrop operation to move an email message from the inbox folder of theuser to a designated folder where the undesired email messages arestored for the user; and in response to detecting the drag and dropoperation, prompting for the moved email message to be marked as a typeof undesired email message that is associated with one of the detectionmechanisms.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality ofdetection approaches include an approach that detects an email messageif the sender of the email message is not on a list of sendersauthorized by the user.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein theplurality of detection approaches includes an approach that detects anemail message if the sender of the email message is on a list ofunauthorized senders.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the pluralityof detection approaches include an approach that detects an emailmessage if the email message contains a textual content string that ison a list of unauthorized textual content strings.
 19. The method ofclaim 15, wherein the plurality of detection approaches include anapproach that analyzes the overall content of previous email messagesthat have been detected and detects an email message if the content ofthe message is similar to the overall content of previous messages. 20.The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of detection approachesincludes: an approach that detects an email message if the sender of theemail message is not on a list of senders authorized by the user; anapproach that detects an email message if the sender of the emailmessage is on a list of unauthorized senders; an approach that detectsan email message if the email message contains a textual content stringthat is on a list of unauthorized textual content strings; and anapproach that analyzes the overall content of previous email messagesthat have been detected and detects an email message if the content ofthe message is similar to the overall content of the previous messagesaccording to a designated content score.
 21. The method of claim 20,wherein the particular visual manner is a particular color that isassociated with a first detection approach, wherein the particular coloris different from another color that is associated with a seconddetection approach.
 22. The method of claim 20, wherein the particularvisual manner is a particular lettering style that is associated with afirst detection approach, wherein the particular lettering style isdifferent from another lettering style that is associated with a seconddetection approach.
 23. The method of claim 15, further comprising:recognizing which particular detection approach designated the emailmessage as being undesirable upon the visual representation of the emailmessage.